Edgewood reviews Civic Center solutions

By Clare Jensen

The Signal
cjensen@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: July 31, 2008

After a 13-foot glitch in the Civic Center plan was revealed to Edgewood City Council mid-June, a number of layout issues surfaced.

Because the partially constructed building lay 13-feet off course of the original plan, parking spots were lost, police car turnarounds were disabled and a transformer and a generator were left without a discrete home.

After touring the site with construction representatives and architectural personnel in mid-July the council felt the issues were still a little unclear.

“I don’t feel that we have a good lead on exactly what the issues are,” said Mayor Jeff Hogan at a council meeting July 22. He said the original stated problem appeared to be solely with where to place the transformer and generator. After touring the site and meeting with contractors, it seemed that was not the case.

“There seems to be other issues popping up.”

The council was presented with four alternatives for placing the generator and transformer on the Civic Center site.

Council had additional ideas that they would like to be considered, such as placing the generator underground and creating a drive-through for the police vehicles as a solution for the now too-tight turning radius for emergency response, without having to lose even more employee parking stalls.

Council member Mike Kelley stressed the importance of not making decisions on issues in an isolated fashion. He noted that while the generator, transformer and parking areas are all technically separate issues, they should not be treated that way, which is what project managers had requested.

“They’re all tied together with how this is built, as a package,” he said.

Other council members seemed to share a general feeling of discontent with how the solutions to the Civic Center layout mistake were handled.

Hogan said he also noticed some wood material discrepancies while touring the building.

“I got the feeling they’re trying to sweep this whole thing under the rug quickly,” Hogan said. “I just think we’re not getting the job we’re asking for.”

At the July 22 meeting, the council did authorize relocation of the transformer across the road in a blackberry thicket area.  Location of the generator and the parking lot issues have not been resolved.

The city drafted a series of requests from architectural firm Miller/Hull, which regard additional alternatives and architectural plans for generator placement, a parking lot solution, police car efficiency and materials used in construction.

The council expects to have the firm’s responses and plans available for discussion at the Aug. 5 study session.

The city also requested a meeting between Hogan, Acting City Manager Janet Caviezel, Public Works Director Dave Lorenzen and architects Mike Jobes and Bob Hull to discuss concerns regarding the management of the project.

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